


Dead Silent

by FalseCamaro (Gandalfgirl579)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Horror, Ghosts, Horror, M/M, Post-Canon, post-trk, pynch - Freeform, rovinsky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 14:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9389579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gandalfgirl579/pseuds/FalseCamaro
Summary: This had been going onfor months; It had to stop. Sleeping was a risk: Ronan had already brought back numerous bits of melted plastic and burnt cloth and burns of his own entirely by accident. Not sleeping proved to be worse, as the maybe-hallucination was only more solid when Ronan kept himself awake.





	

_It wasn't real_ , Ronan had told himself the first time he'd seen it. _It was all a dream. **It had to be.**_

 

Ronan knew better.

 

He knew when he was awake and when he was asleep, and the familiar figure lounging on the fence of the Barns was definitely _not_ a dream. Its being _a nightmare_ seemed far more likely.

 

With great care, Ronan stepped past it, keeping his distance as he made his way to the car. Opal and Adam would be fine, he was sure. It was the middle of the night, and the dream-boy had no interest in anyone but him.

 

Opening the car door and sliding into the driver's seat, Ronan settled in, meeting the figure's eyes as best he could, though it was nearly impossible.

 

Tightening his grip on the BMW's steering wheel, Ronan shifted and pressed down on the gas pedal, speeding out of the driveway and onto the midnight-empty highway.

 

The figure seated on the fence watched him go.

 

In the silence, just over the purr of the engine, Ronan could nearly hear a familiar voice, taunting and teasing, and Ronan clicked the stereo on, blasting an especially ear-bleeding cacophony of electronic noise into the cab. Ronan hated it. He couldn't think with such _noise_. He cranked it louder.

 

Outside, on either side of the BMW, trees were streaking by, illuminated by shafts of cold moonlight, waving in the winter wind.

 

Ronan shivered.

 

This had been going on for months; It had to stop. Sleeping was a risk: Ronan had already brought back numerous bits of melted plastic and burnt cloth and burns of his own entirely by accident. Not sleeping proved to be worse, as the maybe-hallucination was only more solid when Ronan kept himself awake.

 

There was a hairpin turn ahead, and Ronan threw the car into it, nearly rolling when he caught sight of the figure again.

 

This time, it stood in the center of the road, all burnt clothes and raw, pink skin. Its eyes were hidden behind a mass of melted plastic, black lenses and white frames.

 

Ronan jerked the wheel, a rookie mistake, the BMW's tires catching the gravel at the side of the road as he skidded to a stop.

 

The boy at its center was unmoved, one dark brow lifting in challenge, the expression painfully familiar.

 

Ronan felt his throat go dry, hands trembling around the steering wheel.

 

The boy turned his attention to the road for a moment before he looked to Ronan again, blued lips moving too-fast for a few seconds before he vanished in a strobe of red and blue lights, his voice drowned out by the screaming of sirens.

 

Sighing again, Ronan rested his forehead against the steering wheel. _This had to stop_. This was no dream, no nightmare. He was being _haunted_ , though by a ghost or his own guilt, he couldn't say. God knew he was familiar with the concept, if nothing else.

 

 _Adam knew_.

 

Opal knew, too, and she'd even seen the boy once or twice. She was part of Ronan, after all. She saw what he saw. It was only marginally comforting.

 

At a polite tap on the driver's side window, Ronan pressed the button to roll it down, not bothering with meeting the cop's eyes. " _Officer_ ," he said. It came on a sneer.

 

"Lynch."

 

 _Oh, **Morris**_. It could have been worse, Ronan supposed. Morris had been part of the racing scene before he'd graduated, and so he was typically quite lenient.

 

"Wanna tell me why you're going so fast this late at night?"

 

"You really gotta ask?"

 

Morris was as much an adrenaline junkie as Ronan was, but just the same, he said, "There's no one else on the road." Leaning in to rest his arm along the top of the BMW's door, he added, "No one's really racing since K died, I hear."

 

"He was the only one worth racing," Ronan said, surprising himself a bit.

 

"There's _you_."

 

"I don't race anymore." It was true, mostly. Ronan only raced himself, away from responsibility, away from his past. There was no escaping, he knew, but at least he was fighting. _Fighting_ was something he would never give up. "Got too much to live for now." That was _entirely_ true. "Can't risk it anymore."

 

Furrowing his brow, Morris said, "You were just--"

 

" _Shut up, Morris_."

 

Morris simply laughed at him. Then, pulling back to stuff his hands into the pockets of his uniform trousers, he said, "Since you don't race anymore..." And he walked away.

 

Ronan sighed again.

 

As Morris drove off into the night, Ronan caught sight of the boy again.

 

From the back seat of the patrol car, Joseph Kavinsky smirked at him with ash-blackened teeth.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize if this is a bit rough, but it's been ages since I wrote horror, and though my writing roots lie there, I may be a bit rusty. I don't usually do this, but please, PLEASE comment on this piece. I'm an attention whore desperate for validation! 
> 
> Also, I'm considering a Southern Gothic piece as my next big project, as ADD is almost finished. If you guys have any horror concepts to apply to TRC, lemme know! There's a link to my Tumblr below! 
> 
> Excited for more fics? Have constructive criticism or even just silly comments to add? Let me know! And as always, I must mention that I go by [pr0ko](http://pr0ko.tumblr.com/) over on Tumblr, and I'm totally open to taking questions and comments and requests and prompts there! :) Hit me up!


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